Mexico’s First Lady Of Death Bloody Rise To Power

During a political debate in 2013, the wife of Jose Luis Abarca, then mayor of the Mexican town of Iguala, stood up in the crowd and berated her husband’s biggest political foe, Arturo Hernandez Cardona, and warned “soon you will get what’s coming to you.”

Shortly after Cardona disappeared and was believed to be murdered along with the rest of his political opposition party.

A lone survivor’s accounts detailed how they were kidnapped by a local cartel, and alleges that Cardona death came at the hands of the mayor himself.

Even though there is telling eyewitness accounts and a variety of evidence, no arrests were made.

National outrage has been stirred over the disappearance of 43 Mexican college students, kidnapped and believed to have been murdered.

The chief suspect is non other than the wife of the former Mexican mayor, who along with her husband were taken into custody after going on the lam.

During Abarca’s term as mayor, residents told CNN the mayor did everything she wanted, Pineda ran the town and made the decisions.

However, Pineda had ambitions to replace her husband as mayor, and announced her candidacy for mayor.

She had scheduled a planned campaign speech on September 26th, and found out that a group of student protesters were planning to disrupt the speech.

Federal authorities say Pineda ordered the kidnappings, Her cartel and police cooperated in the planning of the kidnappings and according to multiple sources she ordered that the students to “be taught a lesson” for interrupting her speech.

Pineda is known to the Local in the town of Iguala and throughout the northern state of Guerrero as the Queen of Iguala, the First Lady of Narcotics, the First Lady of Murder, and to members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, she is known as ‘Jefa de los Jefes’ which means the “Boss of Bosses.”

The cartel was established in 2009 and is responsible for hundreds of disappearances and is believed to have carried out at least two hundred murders that federal authorities know about.

To the public, she attempted to present herself as a beautifully dressed well manicured first lady and posted her good deeds on Facebook.

However, to those who know her, say she is pure evil, a woman who is as cold blooded and ruthless as they come. A woman who would not think twice of eliminating anyone who stands in her path or would tarnish her image.

Since the arrests of her and her husband, Mexican Federal authorities have come out and alleged that Pineda is the actual boss who calls the shots within the ruthless drug gang.

Her Upbringing

Pineda grew up one of five children, all of Maria’s immediate family have either been killed or are in jail because of their organized crime involvement.

Her parents, Salomon Pineda and Maria Villa, forge a brutal and widely feared family crime syndicate operating in Guerrero and Morelos states, which is just south of Mexico City. The family conducted criminal activities as well as acquired massive wealth through gold and jewellery businesses they owned throughout the territory.

Maria grew up witnessing crimes of the most violent nature such as, kidnappings for ransom, drug trafficking and murders, including that of her older sister by a rival cartel.

In a bid for revenge, her family formed a partnership with another rival cartel within the region, this expanded their reach and maintained a stranglehold in the region.

Residents who lived in the town where the family were based out of, say Pineda-Villa family would make it a point to leave the bodies of their victims by the dock on a lake near the town.

The family made sure the local police were paid off, so if anyone were to speak out they would disappear.

One local fisherman described Pineda, saying, ‘Maria was well known around town and she loved the fact that people were scared of her’.

When she was in her mid 20’s when she met Jose Luis Abarca at one of her family’s gold businesses. Abarca was a merchant selling straw hats, wedding dresses, which led him into jewellery business. The two married almost a year later.

The sister of Abarca, Roselia Abarca said in an interview: “He understood and knew she was a member of a dangerous family, but he always said he was marrying her, not her brothers.”

She went on to say, “that wicked woman corrupted my brother. He was always ambitious, but he was never evil, Now it turns out she was the worst of the whole lot.”

After he married Pineda, he used the wealth of the Pineda-Villa family and became involved in the gold business. Opening up businesses and owning real estate throughout the region.

In 2009, Pineda’s parents were arrested by authorities and sent to prison after being convicted on charges of organized crime.

Pineda’s brothers Alberto and Mario, at the time were lieutenants within the powerful Beltran Leyva Cartel. However, a power struggle ensued within the cartel that led to the murders of both brothers.

The power struggle led to the Beltran Leyva cartel splitting into separate cartel factions.

This is when Pineda and her surviving brother Salomon established the Guerreros Unidos, along with remaining members of the Pineda-Vila family.

Both brother and sister were feared throughout the territory, known for their ruthless acts of violence, they consolidated power within the northern Guerrero state, the group gathered wealth through extortion, kidnapping and trafficking of drugs.

However, shortly after establishing the cartel, Salomon was arrested and charged by the Mexican government with drug trafficking and was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Pineda then assumed the role as boss of the cartel. She became known known for middle of the night disappearances, where either members of the cartels or police officers on her payroll would silently enter the homes of their targeted victims while they slept and kidnap them.

If they were lucky they returned badly beaten, if they weren’t, they would never be seen ever again.

According to residents of the town, anyone who spoke out against Pineda or her family would disappear, never to be seen again and everyone would know who was responsible, but would never say anything because they feared the same thing would happen to them.

Since the disappearance of the students, search parties from around the country have searched the region and have uncovered over forty mass grave sites. Police say these graves are where Pineda’s cartel buried their victims.

Cristoforo Rodriguez who headed a search party said of the discoveries: “The graves are very shallow and we haven’t found a single one that could be more than two years old, that’s the same amount of time that Abarca took office”.

He explained that it was quite clear is that the victims either were forced to dig their own graves before being murdered or were simply just buried alive.

Rodriguez went on to say “This cartel has a terrible reputation for brutality that is only now coming to be recognized,

Longtime resident of Iguala Bertha Salgado explained that, “This town used to be a peaceful place where people weren’t afraid to step outside, but now our police are murderers and our government is made up of delinquents’.

Esther Vargas, Iguala’s head of economic development who worked in the municipal government with Pineda called her a demon and said “She had a very short temper and would become very aggressive when she was angry.

Another Iguala native, Jorge Salgado said “She was beautiful and evil, like a soap opera villain. The entire town was terrified of offending her for fear what might happen’.

In the charges brought against Jose Luis Abarca, The Mexican Attorney General said the the former Mayor made monthly payments of between two and three million Mexican pesos to his wife’s cartel, which would be used to pay off state officials including the state district attorney’s office downwards in order to keep law enforcement off their backs.

The Pinedas have since gained control of the drug trade throughout the territory under the name of the Sinaloa Cartel. Her brother Salomon is believed to control the entire drug trade in the territory, which begins in Colombia and reaches into Atlanta, Georgia.

Now Pineda and her husband will stand trial on organized crime charges and an arrest warrant has been issued for the disappearance of the 43 missing students.

Federal prosecutors have unequivocally charged that Pineda and her husband were the masterminds and are responsible for the barbaric act, and the families of the students are awaiting justice to be served.

Pineda’s bloody rise is a perfect example of the culture of corruption that has engulfed the entire nation, where the drug trade, business and politics meet, becoming one in the same.